Five years ago, the EU opened accession negotiations with Turkey projecting 2014 as the earliest possible date for membership. Yet, it is not solely the date that continues to stir debates, but the very candidacy of Turkey itself. Aiming to turn the by now conventional EU- Turkey controversy into a conversation, this interdisciplinary conference is designed to revisit critical themes in Turkey’s accession debate, including the role of immigration, minority rights and norm diffusion, by contextualizing Turkey’s EU bid through historical inquiries into the making of the European Union. The conference series seeks to shift the current focus on ‘European’ perceptions of Turkey’s candidacy by equally considering scholarly debates from Turkey through a two-tier meeting structure organized in cooperation between KFG, Free University (Berlin) and Sabanci University (Istanbul).

A summary and the podcasts from the span4 event, which took place in Berlin February 2-5, 2011, can be accessed at